Heres some pictures of my obg 1994,it has fret edge binding,long tennon,
nitro finish,but has domestic orville pups and sg japan tailpeice, when i brought it the seller said it was rare because of this fact!Had it for about 5 months.serial is 94.
Is this an reissue?
I know there is a lot variation with mij orvilles and obg,damn fine guitar,picked up the chip near the binding when shipped from japan l:other wise it is in mint condition,will get it repaired propely soon?

Last edited by mojo hobo on Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:26 pm; edited 3 times in total

It does on first glance but the pickup wire routing holes that go to the control cavity are down the right side which Terada didn't do and Fujigen did do and there is no G in the serial which Fujigen did._________________When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them. Rodney Dangerfield

Hmmm i see what you mean but the headstock shape was what i saw and instantly recognised it as Terada... I thought the fujigen headstocks were slightly different shaped......either way its a nice guitar.

Thanks leadguitar and japan strat for you input,i did a lot of research before i brought it, mainly here on this forum you both helped me ,with all the knowledge you both have concerning orvilles and obg.

I looked at every photo of obg reissues i could find on the web and deciced it was a real reissue but still had a doubt because it is quite uniqiue.The serial is fujigen,the routing in pup cavity is fujigen,feb, i learnt all this from the k-serial thread!
The headstock logo color is what i am not too sure about ,can you explain leadguitar 323 how the headstocks are different between factories, i have seen many photos of obg reissues with gold obg logo color(like mine)but also seen many from the same year with white obg lettering,is this the difference?
The guitar i reckon is a transitional model,1993 production was moved from terada to fujigen late 1993,this is correct?isnt it!
The guitar has normal orville pups ,but i have a pair of classic 57 waiting to be fitted when i get time.
I picked this guitar up for 61000yen =400 uk pounds,without shipping and duty/vat.
It has a very loud percussive,bright sound,with good sustain ,weighs about 4kg ,sounds great acoustically and even better plugged in.
The classic 57 should make a difference once in

The OBG and Orville custom headstocks have noticeable differences between the Terada and Fujigen made customs.
With the Standards the headstock differences are not as great.

It's a Fujigen OBG and there were no transitional OBG's or Orvilles it was just that in late 1992 most of the solid body OBG and Orville (in 1993) making went to Fujigen but Terada still made some of the OBG solid bodies after 1993 with a G letter and even some solid body Orvilles after 1995 with a J letter.
When Fujigen started making OBG's (in late 1992) and Orvilles (in 1993) Terada mostly made Semi Acoustics with a G letter for OBG's and a J letter for Orvilles.

Fujigen's main thing is making solid bodies and Terada's main thing is making Semi Acoustics and Acoustics but Terada can also make solid bodies and Fujigen stopped making Acoustics in the early 1980s.

Terada started making all of the solid body and Semi Acoustic and Acoustic OBG's starting from 1988 and the (K) Orville solid bodies starting from 1989.
When Fujigen started making OBG's in late 1992 and Orvilles in 1993 it was natural for them to take over most of the solid body making and leave Terada to make mainly the Semi Acoustics and Acoustics and most (but not all) of the Terada G serial OBG's stop from late 1992 and all of the Terada K Orvilles stop in 1993.

The reason that Fujigen didn't start making OBG and Orville solid bodies until late 1992/1993 is that Fujigen did not want large Les Paul set neck contracts in the late 1980s but they changed their mind by 1992.

Any OBG or Orville with a letter in the serial is made by Terada.
The K Orvilles were also made by Terada.
All of the rest with no letter in the serial are made by Fujigen.

I think that somewhere along the line someone has swapped out the guitars original pickups.
It happens a fair bit._________________When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them. Rodney Dangerfield

Thanks japanstrat,
you cleared up a few issues i was confused about? never looked at the pots to see if soldering looks changed on the pickup connections!
Here some pictures of my k orville!
My k orville has a 4 piece back,3 piece top,neck heel,but weighs 4.8kg
sounds different ,lovely balanced sound ,good sustain and a really good action,great for just doodling on?

Some of the Terada OBG's have a neck heel as well as some of the Terada K Orvilles but some K Orvilles have no neck heel.
Same with tenons with the Terada G serial OBG's having long, medium long and medium tenons and the Terada K Orvilles having the same and all the Fujigen OBG's and Orvilles have a long tenon.

From looking at a lot of the Terada K Orvilles and comparing them to the Terada G serial OBG's it becomes pretty obvious that Terada were putting the K Orvilles together from left over OBG bodies and necks that didn't quite make the OBG grade but even some of the low priced Terada G serial OBG's are made in the same sort of way as the K Orvilles.

Terada was/are not a greatly automated factory and Fujigen was/is.
So that is the main difference between them.

The high priced Terada made G serial OBG's and Semi Acoustics are mostly hand finished with great care but Terada took less care with the hand finished cheaper guitars like the low priced OBG's and so some K Orvilles and low priced OBG's can be a bit rough.

Fujigen quality control is much more consistant because of Fujigen being an automated factory with less hand finishing than Terada.

The tone of a guitar doesn't always depend on the number of pieces of wood or how great the guitar is finished._________________When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them. Rodney Dangerfield

I recieved a couple of OBG catalogues today,1992 and 1994 ,My guitar ,the OBG with fret binding is a 57 reissue and was priced at 110,000 yen new in 1994...I will try and get some photos of the two catalogues posted soon...